Find out about Google's newest data center currently under construction in Hamina, Finland. The new data center will feature an innovative sea water cooling system.

Back in the early 90's whilst playing our Atari Lynx -- friendless and alone, of course -- we couldn't have imagined that a second-rate spinoff of the popular Gauntlet franchise would unlock the secrets behind the birth of Google's Android OS. But, lo and behold, what has one of our faithful tipsters found down here, amongst the ruins of Gauntlet: The Third Encounter? That's right, nearly irrefutable proof that the Android team (or at least its graphic designers) have plumbed the depths of Epyx's not-quite-masterpiece for the iconic droid logo we've come to know and love. Sure, the top-down scroller provided all kinds of new character classes like the "Nerd," "Punkrocker," and "Pirate," but only one of these fresh faces would provide the blueprint for Android's public face. It's hard to argue that there isn't some level of appropriation here, given the multiple similarities between the two pieces of art, right down to the antennae, dotted eyes, general size and shape, and even the strip which cuts across the midsection of the bot. Oh yeah, and the character is named Android. We personally would like to hear what Google has to say for themselves in regards to this blatant theft of intellectual property, and as for the Epyx artists who slaved over a hot Amiga to bring this image to life -- the taste of sweet justice is yours. Gallery: Android / Android transformation

[Thanks, Davey]Continue reading Shocker! Google's Android logo boosted from Atari Lynx title 'Gauntlet: The Third Encounter'Shocker! Google's Android logo boosted from Atari Lynx title 'Gauntlet: The Third Encounter' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Today, Google announced the completion of its new web indexing system title Caffeine. Google boasts that Caffeine, “provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered.” Google goes onto explain just how their old index and Caffeine differ: Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you. With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.

It all sounds good to us, after all…we like to keep it fresh from time to time. Google also indulges us with some fairly mind-numbing statistics about just how fast Caffeine actually crawls the web: Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second. Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day. You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information; if these were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.

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Meet Google. The noun that became a verb. The world's favourite search engine, and the company whose motto is "Don't be evil..." abc.net.au/hungrybeast

Here are some sample queries which contain removed or self-censored pages, according to Google’s disclaimers (I’m including pages missing due to alleged copyright infringements, you can judge for yourself if you’d call this censorship):

In Google France: aryan 88 The notice linked at the bottom of the results reads: “Google received complaints prior to March 2005 about URLs that are alleged to be illegal under U.S. or local law. In response to these complaints, one or more URLs that would have appeared for this search were not displayed.” The site in question is likely aryan88.com, which is completely missing in Google France (in Google.com, the query site:aryan88.com returns 213 hits).

In Google USA: site:xenu.net

This is a site operator query across Xenu.net, a site critical of the Scientology. Scientology sent Google a letter that complained about a particular page at Xenu as part of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. “This particular web site owner has placed our clients’ copyrighted works and federally registered trademarks on his web page without the authorization of our clients. According, his actions are in violation of United States copyright law and I request Google either remove or disable access to the web site, “www.xenu.net”.”

In Google Australia: aboriginal encyclopedia dramatica

Google at the footer of the results currently disclaims that 4 pages are missing. The explanation details that “Google received a complaint about a website that allegedly violates the Australian Anti Discrimination Act. Accordingly, Google removed the website from Google.com.au.”

In Google China: human rights

In China, the explanation consists of one sentence, which auto-translates to “According to local laws, regulations and policies, some search results are not shown.”

In Google Germany: holocaust lüge

This means “holocaust lie”. Denying the holocaust is illegal in Germany. Google’s explanation notice reads “A URL that otherwise would have appeared in response to your search, was not displayed because that URL was reported as illegal by a German regulatory body.”

When a particular search query leads to censored results, that does not mean the query in itself is blocked, but it usually means that a URL that would have appeared on the results for this query is blocked. This is perhaps best illustrated by the following query:

freie Meinungsäußerung und geschichtliche Wahrheit

Translated, this means “free speech and historical truth”. But enter this in Google Germany, and Google will show censored results... because these words appeared in a document that is illegal in Germany.

If you want the most uncensored Google results, Google.com may be the site of your choice. In the US, free speech is hold up high in comparison to some other countries... at least if you ignore content unavailable due to copyright issues. (Note there may be other mechanisms by which certain content won’t reach you easily due to lobbyists, group pressure, mainstream media ignoring a certain subject, an opinion not being commercial enough – for instance a TV program that won’t find advertisers due to its controversial subject may need to be cancelled – and so on... all these mechanisms can have effects on Google results, too.) [By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Queries With Removed/ Censored Results in Goo ... | Comments][Advertisement] Books about Google available on Ebay

When it comes to "unboxing", ninjas know how to handle things...

Ah, the Google Nexus One. Google’s current “flagship” Android device received an enormous amount of attention in the time leading up to its release. While definitely justified, it also came with a dose of unrealistic expectations. Admittedly, it is one of the most powerful smartphones on the entire planet (no, we won’t refer to it as a superphone), and it’s packed to the brim with the latest high-end specifications that any true geek would love. But, what’s the verdict? Well, you’ll have to read on to find out obviously. We’ve reviewed the phone with an open mind, and have also offered up some personal thoughts following the review. Just remember that violence is never the answer, ok?

Hardware It is really remarkable how HTC has so beautifully blended a perfect mix of gigahertz processors, gorgeous and beautiful capacitive displays, and great crafted casings. We’ve got a big, bright 3.7″ AMOLED capacitive 800×480 display, a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB of RAM, world-wide 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash among other things, into a tight and slim 11.5mm package. This time around, the hardware still isn’t completely perfect. The capacitive display, while excellent, doesn’t have the same response as its largest competitor in the touch screen arena. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but we feel like the 5% or so difference  becomes noticeable with everyday usage. It could be a combination of hardware and software (and most likely is) but for the most part, the average user will have no issue rapidly switching through homescreens, flicking through email, or firing off text messages on the large and responsive display. One other annoyance is the touch-sensitive buttons below the screen, however. They seem to be the exact same as what’s on the HTC DROID Eris, and we are having the exact same issues. Their contact point seems to sit a little higher than it should, so if you press the button normally from the bottom half, your touch probably will not register. You have to hit it at exactly the right point — the top 25% — and even then you may hit the screen instead because it’s right there, sitting 1mm above, after all. The haptic response also isn’t entirely comforting as is on the Motorola DROID, whose touch-sensitive buttons are the most friendly we’ve ever used.

The trackball as a navigational input device is fine — it’s a trackball that’s been used on many, many devices for many years. Is it necessary? Probably not, but we gather that some people prefer anything physical they can “count” on in this day and age of all touch, no feel.

Software And, unfortunately we have to mosey on to the software side of things. Android has gone through a pretty big transformation between now and over a year ago. There’s built-in Exchange (contacts and email only) support, Facebook, widget support, updated browser with a useless double-tap feature, voice search / commands, and many others. And while in our testing Android 2.1 worked reasonably well, we just can’t get over the fact that in addition to software inconsistencies which we’ll touch on below, there are still small slow downs and hiccups even with this 1GHz processor. That’s not good. With that said, Android 2.1 doesn’t add too much more than what the Motorola DROID offers (that runs Android 2.0). We’ve got “live” wallpapers which are animated wallpapers for your homescreen that dynamically change based on different events: time, time of day, sound, touch — those are fun, if not a compete waste of battery. Additionally in Android 2.1, every text entry field is voice-enabled (data connection required) so you can practically say what you’d like to type, and Google will try their best to figure out what you are saying. In our limited testing it actually worked quite well in pretty low-noise environments, but your mileage will obviously vary based on your speaking patterns, accent, background noise, and other variables. The application drawer which used to slide out from the bottom of the device no longer does so. It’s just takes a simple tap to engage your application list that beautifully fly in from behind you. Think of it as exactly the opposite transition effect that the iPhone uses. There’s also a News and Weather widget/application set which looks great and is pretty customizable. It’s definitely the best implementation we’ve seen on Android in terms of a news/weather widget, but that also speaks to how poorly 3rd party widgets and applications are designed and developed on Android as a whole. The redesigned photo gallery is visually impressive and the 3D effects with accelerometer-injected tilts are enticing. But, we’d have rather Google spent more time on perfecting other applications instead of jazzing up the photo viewer. Don’t get us wrong, Android 2.1 comes with some improvements visually and under the hood as well, but Exchange support is still mediocre at best, and we get this incomplete feeling. Again, a “feeling.” You’ll see why that’s important.

Phone quality If T-Mobile actually had coverage… Joking aside, the Nexus One, as a phone, is the best phone we’ve ever used. It sounds so, so great and is really refreshing to be able to have an excellent and smooth voice exchange with another party. In addition to the call sounding great on our end, the call also sounds absolutely perfect for the other person as well. Why, you ask? Because HTC has ingeniously integrated dual microphones for superior noise-cancellation. It’s been done before in other applications, in some form or another — Motorola has long had CrystalTalk — but it’s the best implementation on a phone that we’ve ever used. Literally, you could be on the busiest street in New York City with babies crying, cabs honking, wind blowing, and there’s a decent enough chance that the person you’re speaking to on the other end wouldn’t even notice. And oh yeah, it will be supported by Verizon Wireless this “Spring” so you can pair that with “America’s Most Reliable Network.” The actual loudspeaker on the phone is decent. It’s definitely loud enough, but it’s not that clear and can get distorted pretty easily if the volume is raised up enough. With that said, calls with speakerphone enabled still were pleasant enough and both us and the poor test subject on the other end of the line had a clear enough conversation without disruption.

Screen When you think of an AMOLED screen you probably think bright, beautiful colors, crisp, sharp detailing, and you also probably think, “that might not be the best screen to use at the beach.” And, if you thought that last part, you’d be right. The screen on the Nexus One, while gorgeous, is not usable in direct sunlight and it’s rather depressing. Getting over the sunlight issue, the screen isn’t as rich as the Motorola DROID’s display, unfortunately. We didn’t miss the actual resolution in terms of having more room, but the DROID’s display doesn’t show pixelation like the Nexus One does, and just honestly seems like a better product. Now, before you get too worked up, the Nexus One display is in and of itself great, but if you’d like to know the best of the best, it would have to be the DROID’s display.

Camera The camera is decent, if not semi-enjoyable to use due to the speedy processor and fast photo snaps. It’s worlds better than the Motorola DROID’s camera, in both hardware and software partly in thanks to HTC (even though they aren’t known for their excellent cameras) and partly in thanks to some refinement with Android 2.1’s camera application. Unfortunately since this is a Google Experience (read: not raped by manufacturers), some of HTC’s awesome tweaks like tap to focus aren’t present. It’s such an invaluable feature for a touch screen device with a camera, and it’s a shame it’s not in here. In general, echoing our thoughts from the DROID review, though, Android’s default camera application is mediocre at best, slightly frustrating, and mildly confusing. It’s a recurring theme you’ll see in Android and in my personal thoughts coming up later later, you’ll see exactly why – one of many issues is that there isn’t a single amazing application on the Android platform.

Battery: The Nexus One ships with a 1400mAh battery, and while you’d think that 1GHz CPU would run through that battery like a Kenyan track star, the battery actually holds up quite well. Power users are probably going to have to have a charging station visit at some point during a long day, but for regular phone, browser, email, and multimedia usage, the Nexus One actually almost lasted an entire day. Google services What would a “Google Phone” be without Google’s services? Everything is stuffed into Android, and Android 2.1 just as you’d expect. Obviously Google’s Gmail app is the best you’re going to get if you’re a Gmail warrior, and other Google services tightly integrated into the Nexus One (and more Android phones) you can look forward to include: Google Maps, Google Navigation, Google Voice Search, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Voice, Google Market, Google News and Weather, and of course, YouTube.

Conclusion The Nexus One is the best Android phone to date, and if you love your Android devices, this is the phone that beats them all. There are always going to be new handsets around the corner — HTC isn’t slowing down, Motorola is pushing forward, and countless other manufacturers are pumping out handsets — but right now, this is it. Now, if you ask us if the Nexus One is the phone for you, we’re not sure. If you’re stepping up from another basic smartphone or regular phone, there is little doubt you’ll be drawn in by the beautiful screen, the oh-so-easy Gmail and Google service integration, and a solidly built handset with amazing phone capabilities. However, if you’re coming from a BlackBerry or iPhone, we’re not sure you’ll be able to ride it out as Android still feels undercooked to us, and while the “openness” definitely shines through, we feel it might be shining a little too bright. Personal opinion For my personal opinion on Android as a whole, head over here!

Google has just announced that it has acquired AdMob, the mobile ad platform that has been especially popular on the iPhone, for $750 million. This is a big win for the company’s early investors, which include Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners (this is a huge day for Accel — they were also investors in Playfish, which was just acquired by EA). More recent investors include DFJ and Northgate Capital.
AdMob founder Omar Hamoui sent the following letter to customers: Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. We are extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our advertiser, developer and publisher partners.
AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Our business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network. After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. We believe this deal will benefit our advertisers, developers and publishers by: *Increasing our investment in building innovative and engaging ad units across platforms and to further improve targeting and tracking. *Building even more powerful relevance and optimization capabilities, and more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic. *Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships. *Improving the already high level of service and support we deliver to our advertisers, developers and publishers. Google has written its own blog post announcing the deal, pointing out the dramatic increase they’ve seen in mobile search and app usage: iPhone and Android users browse the Internet more often than anyone else [Morgan Stanley], contributing to Google’s 5x mobile search growth over the past two years And a quarter of these same iPhone and Android users spend nearly 90 minutes per day using applications on their devices [AdMob]

Google has set up a website to explain the benefits of the AdMob acquisition, detailing the rapidly growing (and still very nascent) mobile advertising space. Google also created the graphic below to highlight the differences between its own mobile search ads, and the display ads AdMob shows in applications on the iPhone and other platforms.

This has been a big day for acquisitions. Earlier today we broke the story that Google is acquiring VoIP startup Gizmo5 for around $30 million in cash. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

現在正在參加Taipei GTUG，剛剛聽到ericsk大大分享的一個小技巧： 在與朋友分享Google Maps上的路徑規劃地圖時，可以將saddr及daddr參數代入網址，點選該連結之後就可以直接進入路徑規劃的頁面。 http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=起點&daddr=終點&hl=zh-tw 於是我剛剛無聊就稍微測試了一下下列網址： http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Beijing&daddr=台北市政治大學&hl=zh-tw 路徑規劃結果會如下圖所示：

規劃路徑直接橫跨台灣海峽，這並不意外，比較讓我意外的是下面兩張圖：

真是太有趣了XD Google的智慧很聰明的，遇到該游泳的時候就請你游泳，而不是丟給你錯誤訊息說：「無法規劃此路徑」XD

Larry Page delivers the commencement address at the University of Michigan. Note the audio is not working between 0:43 and 2:28. We're working to fix this as quickly as we can. Sorry!

...with the hair pulled back, revealing a rack of cheap networked PCs, circa 1999.

Each level has a couple of PC boards slammed in there, partially overlapping. This approach reflects a presumption of rapid obsolescence of cheap hardware, which would not need to be repaired. Several of the PCs never worked, and the system design optimized around multiple computer failures.

According to Larry and Sergey, the beta system used Duplo blocks for the chassis because generic brand plastic blocks were not rigid enough.

We held an event at the Computer History Museum yesterday, and I noticed this new item in the collection. It pre-dates the Google Master Plan.

...with the hair pulled back, revealing a rack of cheap networked PCs, circa 1999.

Each level has a couple of PC boards slammed in there, partially overlapping. This approach reflects a presumption of rapid obsolescence of cheap hardware, which would not need to be repaired. Several of the PCs never worked, and the system design optimized around multiple computer failures.

According to Larry and Sergey, the beta system used Duplo blocks for the chassis because generic brand plastic blocks were not rigid enough.

We held an event at the Computer History Museum yesterday, and I noticed this new item in the collection. It pre-dates the Google Master Plan.